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Egypt, US student released after 16 months in prison

2020-07-08T09:42:38.737Z


Amnesty: 'Pressure pays, act for Zaky' (ANSA)An American medical student detained without trial in an Egyptian prison for nearly 500 days was released and returned to the United States. This was announced by the US State Department. The release of Mohamed Amashah, a citizen with dual US and Egyptian citizenship, follows months of pressure from the Trump government. Amashah was arrested in March 2019 while exhibiting in Cairo in Tahrir Square...


An American medical student detained without trial in an Egyptian prison for nearly 500 days was released and returned to the United States. This was announced by the US State Department. The release of Mohamed Amashah, a citizen with dual US and Egyptian citizenship, follows months of pressure from the Trump government. Amashah was arrested in March 2019 while exhibiting in Cairo in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the Arab Spring of 2011, a sign saying "freedom for all political prisoners". "We welcome the release of US citizen Mohamed Amashah and thank Egypt for his cooperation in his repatriation. Before embarking to return home to New Jersey City, Amashah, 24, renounced Egyptian citizenship as a condition for his release. Like thousands of political prisoners in Egypt, the student was held in pre-trial detention on charges of "misusing social media" and "helping a terrorist group," according to the Freedom Initiative group, who followed the case, according to broad anti-terrorism laws, Egyptian prosecutors often used these vague accusations to get their 15-day pre-trial detention renewed for months or years, often with little evidence. 

 "Of course 500 days in prison for a student who had just raised a sign asking for freedom for prisoners is a huge time, but this story teaches us that the pressures at some point pay off." So Riccardo Noury, spokesman for Amnesty International Italy, comments to ANSA about the release of Mohamed Amashah, a citizen with dual US and Egyptian citizenship, detained without trial in Egypt, and renews the appeal to the Italian Government to press Cairo for the release of Patrick George Zaky.

American President Donald Trump, Noury ​​continues, "has managed to release an Egyptian and American citizen. We hope that Giuseppe Conte, who boasts and claims excellent relations with Al Sisi, will be able to do much earlier to obtain the release of an Egyptian citizen and Bolognese honorarium ".

    Zaky, a 29 year old Egyptian student enrolled in a master's degree at the University of Bologna, has been in prison in Egypt for opinion crimes for more than 150 days, since the beginning of February. The next hearing for the renewal of the detention or not, after exhausting postponements often without even the presence of lawyers, would be set for July 12th. In recent days, Egypt has announced a grace for 530 prisoners to decongest prisons and Amnesty asks that the Italian government put pressure on the Alma Mater student to benefit from it. A few days ago a letter was sent to the boy's family from prison: "I'm fine, I miss you, I'll be free", he wrote.   

Source: ansa

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